Intelligence Augmentation Is About to Hit Breakneck Speed

In 1962, one year after the first industrial robot joined a production line at General Motors, the animated sitcom The Jetsons debuted. For just one season, the show forecast a future when people could have whatever they wanted (a gourmet dinner, a clean house, a flying car that folds into a briefcase) by pushing a button. It was fantasy then, and much of it still is today--progress is sometimes slow. The Hunter-Gatherer Age lasted a couple million years, the Agricultural Age lasted several thousand years, and the Industrial Age lasted a couple of centuries. Then the Information Age came along and dramatically accelerated the speed at which we evolve, at least technologically.